This is part of the Bittersweet Book Launch case study, where Dan Blank and Miranda Beverly-Whittemore share the yearlong process of launching her novel. You can view all posts here.
With so much going on, with so many possibilities, and very limited resources, I am factoring a huge thing into all decisions Miranda and I make: “HOW DO YOU WANT TO FEEL?”
Miranda mentioned this in her newsletter this morning regarding her choice to not be the voice of her audiobook:
“I briefly flirted with the idea of wanting to record Bittersweet, but decided that it would exhaust me right when I need to be gathering strength in advance of publication.”
Likewise, we had “the chat” this week: which of the many giveaway ideas that we brainstormed will we actually execute on? The number of options was truly overwhelming. So how I framed this for our chat:
“I think that for the giveaways, this is about whittling down to one idea that seems fun. That’s it. Do one idea really well.
To me, I tried to factor in how I want Miranda and I to feel for the next 8 weeks. Do we want to feel harried and like she is left with the responsibility of saying “BUY MY BOOK BUY MY BOOK BUY MY BOOK” in 1,000 different ways every single day?
Ugh. No.
So the idea we landed with is very different than that. Still fleshing out details today and Monday, but we will share specifics when we can. But two questions we tried to infuse into this are:
- How can this feel fun?
- How can this feel generous?
Thanks!
-Dan